33: Champion

  With his deade and a clear objective, John began preparing to return to the SWORD base in Europe, which was located in northern Italy and was actually part of the Allied army base. The pce, of course, wasn’t a real base but rather a provisional front so that John and his team, as well as the stific team led by Howard and the soldiers and agents under Peggy’s and, could be he warfront and carry out their mission against Hydra as needed.

  John had pnned for the true headquarters of SWORD to be built at a future time, ohe war was over, preferably in some nd or pce that wasn’t directly governed by any nation. Of course, there would be headquarters on every ti or in tries deemed important, but if he really wao be somewhat “indepe” from wovers, SWORD o be in a remote location where it could clearly show that the agency had no preference for any natiover.

  Which wouldn't be easy, sihere weren’t many such pces to begin with.

  "Hey, do we really have to stay?" The whining voice pulled him out of his thoughts, making him refocus on the meeting room where he had been discussing a few things with his team.

  After the liberation of the Auschwitz tration camp, a few more days passed until all the prisoners could be escorted to the outskirts of Warsaw, where the rgest number of avaible Polish forces were trated. At the same time, some Allied forces that had arrived over time to provide help and reinforts to the try were also present.

  Thanks to this, many refugee ters were built for the liberated prisoners, something that was surely causing a major headache for the still-rebuilding gover of the European try. Joh a bit sorry for them and silently thahe fact that he wasn’t the one dealing with suplex logistics.

  Of course, not all civilians remained civilians. Many, filled with the rese of losing loved ones and having been prisoners, joined uhe and of the AK (Armia Krajowa), quickly swelling their ranks. They weren’t the best soldiers, that much was clear; many could barely hold ons properly, but the increased manpower helped lighten the load and make the resistand restru efforts more bearable. It would still take a few years before Pond could return to what it once was, but without a doubt, they would rise again, and stronger.

  With that said, John and his team were currently in Warsace John had decided would be the most suitable for them to station until he returned.

  "Yes, it's important that you stay here. Although our crusade for Pond has been quite successful, there are still many enemy bases and cities under German trol. I don’t know how many more of those mohey deploy, but I’d rather not leave this pguarded," he said, looking at Cassandra, who had asked the question. The young woman frowned with clear disappoi but finally stayed quiet upon seeing the serious look on his face.

  Even though the AK was now "strohan before, it was still far from being able to stand up on its own against the Third Reid Hydra. Leaving pletely without leaving some safeguard behind would be like giving their enemies an easy target to strike back. John hadn’t put so much effort and time into liberating this pce just to let something like that happen.

  "You only o hold the fort for a while. Think of it as a small break. You don’t o aless something the AK 't handle es up."

  The thought of a break made Charles, who had been silent, sigh a little. These days had been hard for the boy—entering others' minds as he had been doing didn’t e without sequences. At first, Charles had many nights of nightmares, which he was only able to endure because his mind was growing stronger day by day with the increasingly frequent use of his ability.

  Things that once would have made him tremble in panid fear were now nothing more than minor nuisahat he could crush with a casual flex of his power. Of course, this didn’t meaopped affeg him; he was just gettier at dealing with them. Still, everything has a limit, and Charles preferred not to know where his own was if possible, which is why he felt relieved knowing he could rest for a while longer.

  "Deying our mission like this, I don't like it. We'll lose our advantage by giving them time to recover," James said, frowning. Of all of them, he was the oh the most urgency, for obvious reasons.

  "I know, but don’t worry too much. If everything goes well, I should be ba two or three days, a week at the test. After that, I io speed things up. I think we have enough information to start closing in on Red Skull and Doctor Zo," At his words, James could only grunt iant acceptance.

  "And what about Mr. Mencholy?" Cassandra asked, pointing toward Erik, who had been staring out one of the windows at the half-destroyed city, lost in unknown thoughts. Notig that the attention was suddenly on him, the boy turo look at them, frowning in fusion. After all, he didn’t kly what they were saying since he didn’t speak English.

  "He’ll stay with you as well. I hope you take care of him, and if possible, I’d like you to help him train his abilities."

  At the request, James thought for a moment before nodding.

  "I take care of that."

  Now that his drinking habit had vanished, James found himself with too much free time when there was no fight or mission in sight. Aside fr to sleep, he usually spent time teag a few things to the rookie rebel soldiers who followed the team on their raids, as well as the Xavier siblings when John was too busy to do it himself. And although his teag methods were a bit rough, the experience James could offer was not to be uimated.

  Without John notig, Raven, who had been sitting beside him, sighed inwardly when she realized the newly acquired metahuman member would be staying behind.

  The reason wasn’t that she disliked him—she didn’t even know him well enough for that. It was simply for a more petty and selfish reason, ohat had been slowly festering ihe girl as time went on.

  Looking at all the metahuman members gathered in the room, Raven couldn’t help but grit her teeth. Ead every one of them— they were supposed to be the same, all of them the step in human evolution.

  Then why?

  Why was she the weakest of them all?!

  That feeling had started gnawing at her mind for some time now, first appearing when a Hydra-trolled James fought John.

  In that battle, she felt a powerlesshat reminded her of the day her powers first maed and her father chased her with a gun in hand.

  The helplessness of being pletely defenseless and uo do anything but run.

  She thought she had already overe that fear. Her campaign alongside John in northern Italy had made her feel strong, skilled, capable. She believed she could do it all. But they spped her in the face, pulling her out of that sense of "invincibility" she had gained after so many victories.

  Even so, at that moment, she mao sole herself, and in a way, she relutly accepted it. After all, James wasn’t just a metahuman, he was also a supersoldier. It was expected and natural for him to be s, right?

  But that sotion didn’t st long, and it was challenged agaihe Xavier siblings appeared. Whether it was Cassandra with her telekinesis or Charles with his ability to manipute others' minds, each of them was extraordinary in their own way, and that was evident from the start.

  Although John always assured her that her pce by his side erma, Raven couldn't help but want to prove that she was worthy of it, to prove to him that she could tinue by his side. For that reason, she began to push herself more, using her powers in more creative ways to gain every possible advantage and remain useful.

  At first, she believed she had been doing a great job, as she had demonstrated in all her previous battles. The Nazi army and Hydra soldiers with their futuristic ons had not posed much of a challeo her, and thanks treater battle experienpared to the sibling duo, she was able to stand out enough to prove her worth once more in the various initial skirmishes that took p the capital city of Pond, thus gaining the resped trust of the people.

  But it was at that very moment, when Raven was beginning tain her fideh in herself and in her pce by John's side, as well as in her abilities—that it happened.

  The Hydra monsters arrived.

  From that moment on and in every battle that followed, Raven had no choice but to take a step back every time one of those creatures was unleashed otlefield..

  pletely useless, once again impotent.

  It was extremely frustrating, although she knew she was still capable of tributing a lot in other areas, she couldn't help but feel her heart deeply embittered every time she was forced to hide alongside the on soldiers, pelled to watch as John and the others faced those monsters without being able to do anything to help.

  Raven knew she had to do something to ge the situation, but she wasn't sure what. Her power had clear limitations, and fag monsters more resistant than tanks and faster than bullets was undoubtedly beyond her reach at this time.

  It didn’t help that yet another metahuman, once again strohan her, appeared out of nowhere, reminding her of her frustrations.

  Part of her hoped that this trip with John to SWORD's headquarters would help her find a solution, or at least allow her to vent to him in private, which is why she felt relieved to learn that Erik would stay behind along with the others.

  At least this way, she wouldn’t have a stant reminder of her frustrations during the trip.

  Raven had to abandohoughts and refocus on the meeting still in progress when John started talking once again.

  "That being said, if you need anything else, you go to Tadeusz and his men. I've already spoken to them, so there shouldn’t be any problems, but in case something happens, I trust Charles ha." Upon hearing his he boy nodded, uanding what John expected from him.

  After all, he was the only one able to unicate fluently with the Poles thanks to his power. In fact, he was also the only one oeam besides John who could unicate with Erik due to the nguage barrier.

  It was a small problem that still didn’t have an easy solution. John had sidered asking Charles to simply download the knowledge of how to speak English into Erik's head, but that could bring some problems if done wrong. It would be really messed up if they actally turhe boy into a vegetable.

  Anyway, it wasn’t too inve for now, so it could be postponed for ter.

  John discussed a few more things with the team before cluding the meeting and preparing to leave along with Raven.

  Unfortunately for the girl, John didn’t take the long route as she had hoped and instead began a rapid jourraight toward northern Italy, frustrating her pn to talk to him about her problem, at least for the moment.

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  Somewhere, in a hidden pce.

  Johann Schmidt walked silently through a dark and long tuhat desded into the depths, its interior dimly lit by the fire of torches carefully pced along the walls.

  Finally, his walk brought him in front of a door made of wood aal, tightly shut with thick s around it.

  ‘In the end, I couldn’t avoid having to return here,’ Red Skull couldn’t help but think with disgust as he ched his teeth.

  Not many knew, but before Hydra was turned into the special ons division of the Schutzstaffel, it was known by another name.

  The Division of Supernatural Sces.

  It was no ce that Red Skull's research led him to the Tesseract, the a Nordic artifact of legend.

  Throughout its existence, Hydra had gathered a knowledge from all over the world and from all civilizations that had ever existed—dark and mystical knowledge that Johann Schmidt cssified and deemed too dangerous, not only for the world but also for Hydra itself.

  Thus, using his influence as supreme leader, he had suowledge locked away in a hidden pce where sunlight never reached and where it could not be used by the wrong hands.

  Many could say that Red Skull ying with forces he didn’t uand by using the power of the Tesseract, but what they didn’t know was that, of all the possible paths Hydra could have taken, the Tesseract was the safest of them.

  The most “correct.”

  ‘You’ve really ered me to this point,’ thinking of his mortal enemy, a cold and murderous gleam passed through his eyes. His perfect serum was not yet ready, and Zo's abominations were little more than mere nuisances for Captain Amerio longer useful in deying his advance.

  If he let things tinue as they were, his end would arrive immily, and that was not something he was willing to allow, not without sequences.

  Just as John had imagined, Johann Schmidt was not the kind of man to surrender so easily, even when his ces seemed to grow slimmer.

  No, as long as he still had options, even if those options were dangerous and desperate, he would still fight to the end.

  ‘If I will not rule this world, then this world does not deserve to exist.’ With that thought, Red Skull did not hesitate and finally broke the s on the door in front of him. Then, pulling out a bronze-colored metal key, he unlocked it, allowing the door to creak open, a cold wind blowing through along with specks of dust.

  His superhuman eyes, a result of Professor Erskine’s serum, easily sed the dark room. Distant memories came to his mind, but he dismissed them—it was not the time to get lost in the past.

  Stepping forward, he entered peared to be a very old library. The shelves iall and sturdy, were packed with books of different kinds, sizes, and ages.

  He g them briefly before fog his gaze on what he had e to find.

  Since his time was short, he couldn’t take just anything. He needed something more specifiething he could use with what he had avaible, and he kly what that was.

  "Using the Tessera this way is irritating, but only by harnessing its iergy I safely break the barriers between dimensions without relying on those ridiculous dark rituals." Looking at the aome of invocations in his hands, Red Skull flipped through page after page until he reached the tent he had been searg for.

  There, drawn in bk on the worn and yellowed paper, was the image of a grotesque being, a creature with hundreds of enormous tentacles that seemed capable of extending everywhere without any limit. Though it was a simple illustration, the sight still projected a palpable darkness imosphere, as if the creature etched in ink could break the barrier between the page ay at any moment.

  "The champion of Hydra... I hope the legends about you are not just aales." A long time ago, he had sed the way those old high-ranking officials praised the creature, about how its arrival would bring Hydra's dominance over the world and beyond.

  Fools, incapable of uanding that dark beings like this would never bow to the desires and wills of mere mortals. No, to believe they would obey like simple pets was an absurd fantasy. Creatures like this were dark forces, dangerous and votile, which had to be handled with extreme caution. That is why he had dismissed the idea ing such a forto this world as soon as he became the leader of Hydra, despite the pints aies that su a had geed for him.

  But look at him now, being forced to resort to this in the end. How low the mighty could fall...

  With a silent sigh, he carefully stored the tome and began to leave, ready to begin the preparations for what he knew would be his final battle in this war.

  Whether he won or lost, the world would never fet his existend his name—he would make sure of it.

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  Note:

  And one more chapter! Delving into the thoughts and feelings of the characters is something plicated, but I hadn’t do properly for several chapters, so I thought it was time to do it, at least a little.

  But don’t despair! The a is ing, because as I said in the previous chapter, we are already in the final stretch of the war arc. I apologize if the chapters are taking loo e out because of that; I want to prepare everything properly, and that is something plicated for many reasons.

  I’ll admit that I’m a bit afraid of messing it up and not delivering a satisfying clusion, which holds me back when writing since I end up discarding as many ideas as I add, without being able to decide easily.

  Maybe I should keep it simple and direct? Maybe dramatid explosive? Maybe epid wild? plicated decisions that require different types of preparation and perspectives.

  I hope you give me your opinions, advice, and critiques on this. I'll be reading your ents and replying as much as possible.

  If you want to support me you do it through my Patreon ( patreon.maCruzader ) ;D